Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the company plans to launch its long-awaited robotaxi service on June 22 in Austin, Texas. The service, which Musk has promised for years, will offer members of the public rides in fully autonomous vehicles without human drivers.
However, Musk indicated the launch date might change, emphasizing that Tesla is being “super paranoid about safety.” Over recent weeks, driverless Tesla Model Y SUVs have been observed conducting tests throughout Austin, confirming speculation about the company’s impending deployment of robotaxi services in the area. Reports had earlier predicted a June 12 start date.
Musk first envisioned Tesla cars becoming fully autonomous several years ago. Back in 2019, he projected the launch of a robotaxi network featuring as many as one million self-driving vehicles by 2020, a milestone that was never achieved. Instead, the automaker has spent these intervening years refining its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, which currently requires drivers to remain alert and ready to take control manually when necessary.
The existing FSD system has not been without controversy. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is actively investigating the software following allegations that it played a role in multiple collisions in challenging visibility scenarios, including a fatal incident involving a pedestrian.
Now, Musk asserts that Tesla’s latest iteration of FSD technology no longer demands human supervision. This new, unsupervised driving software will power the initial robotaxi service in Austin. According to Musk, the entire fleet of new Teslas coming from production recently is configured for autonomous driving without hands-on oversight.
Despite this bold assertion, the initial deployment remains cautious and controlled. Musk said the starting fleet will be small—approximately ten vehicles—and will be limited geographically to areas in Austin deemed the safest. Tesla has reportedly been accumulating extensive data from multiple repeated drives in specific neighborhoods, such as southeast Austin, likely to optimize route planning and enhance passenger safety.
This strategic shift towards a cautious, geographically restricted rollout marks a notable departure from Musk’s original description of FSD as a universally applicable solution requiring neither geographic constraints nor supervision. This approach now mirrors the operational strategies of established autonomous vehicle companies such as Waymo, which currently manages successful robotaxi operations in several major U.S. cities.
Additionally, Musk’s recent announcements update his longstanding narrative regarding Tesla’s hardware capabilities. In 2016, Musk famously claimed that every vehicle Tesla produced had all the necessary hardware for fully autonomous driving—a statement later proven inaccurate given subsequent significant changes to Tesla’s FSD hardware. Many existing Tesla vehicles still require potentially extensive upgrades to reach current FSD compatibility, a challenge Musk acknowledged publicly earlier this year without providing a clear resolution.
